Felted Clogs

I can't remember exactly when I first became aware of hand-knit felted clogs, but it may have been from reading the Yarn Harlot's blog. I do remember being very impressed with them. Eventually I obtained the pattern (available here) and knitted a pair for my mother.

It was quite surprising to see how large they start out:

And... how small they end up:

The first picture is the unfelted clogs next to my foot. Although I could get the felted slipper on my foot, my mother's feet are smaller than mine so you can see that they shrunk down quite a lot. Prior to felting, they reminded me of my brother-in-law's slippers that fit on over his work boots so he can walk through the house without having to take his boots off. They just end up dirty on the insides.

On Monday I realized, " Oh! It's after Christmas now, I really ought to be thinking about my sister's birthday next week," so I cast on to make a pair for her. Don't tell her though, it's a surprise.

Luckily they knit up pretty quickly.

Pressing Apples

Sunday, Yvonne and I got together with her apples at Jake's house to do a pressing for cider. 

 




Here's Jake running the press he built. Isn't he amazing??





 We had our snacks...

And Yvonne was happy!  Well okay, we were ALL happy.  :)

And we got seven gallons of sweet cider!  Four are now in the process of hardening...

Here is a link to Yvonne's blog entry from our cider pressing day last year:  Apple Cider Mm Mm Mm
It goes into greater detail and photos of the process...


And... a link to her post about this year's event:  Year two annual apple juice pressing









Quilting Again

So I pulled out an old project tonight that I had started about four or five years ago and stopped. The pattern is called "Evening Celestials" out of the book Batik Beauties by Laurie J. Shifren. (The pattern I used is on the front cover of the book...)

I recall the reason I had set it aside: I seem to have developed an inability to follow directions and thus do things in a simple manner. Therefore, rather than cutting patches the way the book said to do, I had decided it would make more sense, for example, to cut a square instead of the two triangles that get sewn together into a square. In order to do this, I had to draw out the pattern on graph paper and figure out the patches manually. This was all well and good until I came to the "set in" seams.  Aargh!

Yes, there are patches that extend into the next area, i.e. the squares overlapping the inner border. This means that one may not sew a straight seam, but rather, sew one edge at a time up to 1/4 inch from the end of that seam, stop, shift the fabric, and sew the next one, and when the third one is done, one hopes they all lie nice and flat and even. These were not lying all nice and flat and even. I was pretty sure I would have to rip out the offending patches, and do those over again, the way the directions said to do it in the first place. This, I was dreading, hence the 4-1/2 year delay.

So... out comes the unfinished quilt top. Looking at the offending pieces... Heyyyyy... These aren't all buckled up after all... what in the world...? Once I ironed them down, I decided any offending puckers could be "quilted out". That is, once the quilting itself is done, any weird puckers will be forced into submission. What exactly was it I was worried about!?  Clearly not much.

On with the outer border. Uh, there are triangles set into these borders too. And they want me to cut the border pieces several inches longer than necessary, cut the edges at a 45 degree angle, sew the triangle into the top part and cut off the excess?? Are they nuts?

I can't bring myself to "waste" fabric like this! Okay, I know. I'll cut them straight, then sew in the triangles, then seam up that bottom bit and voila! It'll all be good!

Uh oh. I didn't realize these cut triangles would be quite so tricky... Again, I have dodgy seams that don't lie flat and they have all these weird puckers. Aargh!

Rip out the seam. Try again. Rip it out again, reassess. Why is this so hard!? And why the heck can't I just follow the directions to begin with??

Okay... got it! And, get this - I was able to figure it out MY way.  :)

So here is the quilt top before the outer border is mitered. So, just have to miter the corners, and quilt it, and then I'll have a dandy wall hanging. I think it'll look good hanging in my office at work.

And here she thought she didn't even like quilting anymore... HA!

Poetry

I attended a writing workshop one evening this week; it was on poetry of all things. My first thought was, "I don't like poetry." But, as an aspiring writer, it occurred to me that getting one's creativity flowing through other means is not a bad idea.

And as it turns out, I rather enjoyed the process!

The instructor led us through imagery and writing down words of free associations pertaining to a month (or time of year), a place, and a color. Following are the poems I came up with that night:

     Mid Winter Evening

     Smell the wine,

     deep burgundy liquid

     in a sparkling glass.

     Scents of smoky berries

     captured from hot summer days.

     See the bare trees,

     dark branches against an indigo sky

     outside the window.

     Gone are the leaves

     That will again appear.

     Feel the heat,

     the orange crackling flames

     coming from the wood.

     Fire

     bringing life.

     Listen to the wind chimes,

     forgotten

     from summer.

     Tinkles of music

     bringing a smile.

Imagery inspired by a place—

Once near Union Creek,
on a crisp autumn day
the Douglas firs
whispered in the breeze.
An eagle flew overhead,
back towards its nest
with a salmon from the river
clutched in its claws.

Go into the café,
for a sandwich and iced tea.
the rustic wood of the booth
feels smooth as you slide in.
The power is out,
order something
that doesn’t require heat.     (okay, admittedly this one could use some work!)



     Teal is…
    
     The color of secrets
     You tell your closest friend.
    
     The feeling of calm, on an autumn morning
     When you sip hot green tea
     With a drip of honey.

     A walk through the woods
     With your trusted pet
     Ambling along by your side.

     The sound of jazz, drifting over the hill
     Saxophone and bass
     And drums sounding lightly.

     Sunny days, when you’re feeling
     The courage to be you
     And the knife of anxiety
     Kindly wanders away.

     The sharp scent of rosemary
     Pressed between your fingers
     Hinting of promise
     You will be okay.

Happiness is a Habit Part Two

Okay so the retreat was very cool. It was nice to get together and have a fun day.

Here are some thoughts I am left with:

1. God has promised to be with us through our troubles. Nobody expects us to go through crap alone, so all that needs to be done is to call upon Him for support.


2. We get to refer to our own chart and compass for our own life. As a matter of fact, it is our responsibility to do so.

3. We are each responsible for finding / following our own bliss. And it can be a fun adventure!

4. When we are needy, it throws us off. Everything we need is within us.

5. Quit minding other people’s business. They need to do what they need and want to do.

6. “Enlightened selfishness” is how one finds / maintains motivation.

7. Who says we can't feel really good, ALL the time?!
 
8. Prayer is a very powerful tool - even if we don't see immediate evidence of it.

Now to implement...

Happiness is a Habit

So tonight I'm up in Woodland Washington to attend a women's retreat tomorrow called Happiness Is A Habit, put on by Pam Young who was one of the SHE sisters (Sidetracked Home Executives), the person I referred to in my very first blogpost as inspiring me to write, and is FlyLady's mentor.  I have wanted to meet Pam in person and here is my opportunity!

So, tonight I cast on a new knitting project, took a bubble bath, and got started on a new book. Luckily it's hard cover and stays open with fewer contortions than a paperback does when one's hands are busy with knitting. Also lit a couple of candles which is always nice for making an environment one's own.  :)

I am in the habit of bringing a new knitting project to start while travelling. This time I chose a shawl pattern called Floral Mesh Shawl, out of the book One Skein Wonders. I had ordered a skein of baby alpaca lace weight yarn in a teal color called Tide Pool Heather and a set of Harmony Wood needles in size 2 (yikes, they're small!) from Knit Picks. This is the first shawl I'm knitting, and the first time I'm using lace weight yarn.  Here's a picture of what the yarn looks like:

The Tide Pool color is the one right in the center. No, I didn't buy all these, I nicked the photo from Knit Picks website. Luckily I have a ball winder since the yarn comes in hanks and could wind it into a center pull ball earlier.

Here's how far I've gotten on the actual knitting:

This doesn't just look tiny, it really is. The piece so far measures right at 3 inches long.  :)

The book I'm reading is called The Hard Questions for an Authentic Life. Haven't actually gotten to any of the hard questions just yet, but the beginning is quite compelling so far. Such a dilemma... should I knit, read, or write... 

Knitting Night

So Yvonne came over for one night last week for a knitting night...
 

She was working on a washcloth...

...which suspiciously began to resemble...

...the beginnings of a bikini top!

Uh, or bottom...  haha!

Zero Waste?

So Yvonne calls me on Friday to tell me about this article she read in the January edition of Sunset magazine - lucky for me, the article is also online: http://www.sunset.com/home/natural-home/zero-waste-home-0111-00418000069984/.  This family strives to have zero waste. Yvonne was inspired to try some of Béa's ideas and was pretty sure I'd be into it too.  She was right.

This (French-born) lady who lives in California with her husband and two young boys, takes glass jars to the grocery store to put her deli cheese and meats from the meat counter into and brings a pillowcase to the baker to put her loaves of bread in so as to not end up with plastics at home to dispose of. Brilliant!

Yvonne and I are all set to sew up some cloth sacks for our bulk foods and to bring containers for deli food and to scope out sources of bulk shampoo, other soaps, and various other things. A key to making this work obviously, is to prepare foods "from the bottom up" rather than getting pre-processed foods. I already do this mostly but clearly there is opportunity to do more.

This is sort of exciting! I've been looking for some sort of idea I could become passionate about... well, other than knitting that is. It has occurred to me that knitting could really be my stress reliever and not necessarily a "passion".

Uh, on second thought, probably everyone who knows me would disagree with that assessment given the fact that I do manage to work it into a lot of conversations...  :)

So after spending some time reading The Zero Waste Home Blog at http://www.zerowastehome.blogspot.com/ and following links that led to other links and getting really inspired to declutter and try to impersonate a "minimalist", I am ready to tackle a couple of things.

1.  Make cloth sacks for bulk foods and produce. Put them into trunk of the car along with reusable grocery bags I now consistently remember to use.

2. Try to avoid buying things in waxed cardboard cartons. Since these items are not supposed to be recycled with regular cardboard, I'm not sure about any alternatives other than the garbage. I suppose they could be burned... but we live in a "no-burn zone". For much of the year anyway. Too much opportunity to start a forest fire.  So my first step will be to make our own almond milk. We've been avoiding dairy as a family for quite a while now since we discovered Aidan's chronic sinus infections and sniffly nose cleared up when we quit using milk. And that discovery was sort of by accident - when he was about six, we were at a health food store and he got really excited to see boxes of soy milk. "That's milk like in Bucharest!" Not really, but in Romania they vacuum seal regular milk in those types of cartons for shelf stability and he remembered that so wanted to try this kind. Within a couple of weeks all his sinus problems had cleared up so we made that deductive leap... which has been confirmed a couple of times over the years when he gets to using too much dairy.

3.  Make my own glass cleaner and store it in a glass jar/bottle until my current bottle of Windex runs out and hope it works just as well. I know better than to wait until the current supply is gone because then it will just be a big deal and hard to work in.

We'll just see how all this works out... haha.

I got two new books in the mail last week I had ordered from Amazon. I love that place!

My brother Roger recently told me about Born Amish, the story of an Amish girl who grew up in Kalona, Iowa in the 1970's and 80's and who ran off with a man from Kentucky who had lived in Iowa and hired out as a driver for the Amish.  Understandably, this book appears to be a tad controversial among the residents of Kalona. Now I see that she previously wrote another book, "Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape From Amish Life"... and now with a couple of clicks, it's on its way as well.  

Okay, change of subject: This is what happens when I write what I think (something I was recently told I should do) - random changes. I am remembering something that happened when I was a teenager. One summer day, my friends Anne Hochstedler, Aimee Bodie, and I walked into the town of Kalona from Shiloh. Along the way, Aimee, who was from Washington State, was commenting on how "everybody in Iowa is related." Anne and I both disagreed and I finally stated, rather emphatically, "For example, Anne and I are not related." When we got to town we were hot and tired, and we stopped at my Grandmother's house to rest and get a drink of water. After introducing my friends to Grossmommie, she asked Anne who her grandparents were and then she said the completely unexpected: "Your grandfather was my second cousin." What!? Anne and I were speechless. Aimee, on the other hand, was gleeful: "See! I TOLD you everyone in Iowa is related!" There was simply no response for it.

Along the same vein, an interesting development recently: At the Mennonite church I attend here, there is a man called Don Mengershausen whose relatives, I eventually learned, came from Wellman, Iowa which is about 7 miles west of Kalona. Their last name was Miller (which so happens to be Grossmommie's maiden name) but so is the family name of the author of the book above and I don't think they're related. Well on second thought, I suppose I wouldn't be surprised if they are...  So, I dutifully collected the names of all the relatives Don could think of and got the information to my dad who has every family geneology book there is for our family. I asked him if he could look in the "Hay John" book for Don's relatives. My great-great-grandfather was called John Miller, and to distinguish him from every other John Miller (which is also the name of Don's great-something-grandfather, but different middle initial), folks called him "Hay John" because he sold hay to people. Thus, the Hay John book.  This is the book that Dad found Anne Hochstedler's family in as well as all the other people I hear him talking about that I have no idea who they are, as in: "Well Regina, these people you were talking about from your mail route are third cousins to you, see here?" But it turns out that the Hay John book wasn't the most useful in this case. Dad then went to the Hochstedler book which was printed in 1938 and thus went back more generations (I didn't even know we had a Hochstedler book or maybe I wouldn't have been quite so surprised about Anne back in the eighth grade) and found that Hay John's wife, my great-great-grandmother Magdaline was a half-sister to Don's great-great-grandfather John Miller. After writing down the information and spending about two weeks working it out, Don and I have concluded we are fourth cousins. He was pretty surprised to hear it too. Who knew I'd have a cousin in Grants Pass I'd never heard of?

The second book I got is Mother-Daughter Knits which I am quite excited to have since it goes into quite a bit of detail about custom fitting sweaters and such to get the best fit, rather than just blindly following a pattern and then if it doesn't fit oneself, having to go find someone it will fit to give it to. Or else taking it out and re-using the yarn on something that hopefully will end up fitting oneself.

Wineaux Nights

This is me and my friend Kathy - we had "Wineaux" night last night, where we get together with friends and everyone brings a bottle of wine (that normally follows a designated theme) and food to pair with the wine. Last night was Sangiovese, but Chianti was also included as the wines made in the Chianti region of Italy usually use Sangiovese grapes. We also had an assortment of Italian-like cheeses and hors d'oeuvres to accompany the wines. We pour a taste of each wine, and usually everyone comes up with a favorite, although seldom the same one.  My favorite last night was Maryhill Sangiovese 2006 from the Columbia Valley in Washington State. I was smart this time and took a pic of the bottle label with my phone since I usually lose scraps of paper I jot things onto.

My Wineaux shirt suits me as all my friends know how much I love to read. Kathy hates to read; her Wineaux shirt says, "Drinks well with others" but she wasn't wearing it last night. 

We do get a little bit silly sometimes...

But we always have a good time together.

In case anyone is wondering what a "Wineaux" is:

Well now, that pretty much says it!

We started our group in early 2006, well actually November of 2005 although it took a couple of months to really get going. The problem was, we were a little unsure of the best format in the beginning. We started with the idea that it would just be for the gals and we would meet on a Thursday evening. I had quite a few girlfriends who thought this would be a great idea but for one reason or another, Kathy was the only one who came that first time (it was at our house) so we opened our two bottles of wine and our two hunks of cheese, some crackers, and told Rich he could come join us after all and we had a fantastic time.

From then on, we decided on Friday nights once a month and to allow the men to join us. I was shocked to realize last night that it's been going five years now, but I suppose time just keeps going, fairly quickly actually, whether we think about it or not...

Snow again?

So we have a storm warning tonight, and the next couple of days actually. Aidan is hoping for a snow day.

We don't normally get very much snow in Grants Pass itself - the elevation is about 900 feet on the "valley floor". We get an average of a dusting or two each winter and it's nearly always melted by noon. There are, however, foothills surrounding the city and we often see the snow there.

We actually did have a nice snow fall last Thursday; I took this picture looking out the kitchen door overlooking the patio at about 7:00 that morning:

At about 7:20, Aidan and I headed out with the snow coming down again, looking like a feather pillow was being shaken. I was wondering how the driveway would be since, as anyone who has been here knows, it's a little steep. I kept the car in first gear and it ended up being fine. But then I turned out onto Starlite Place and oh crap, it was icy!

As the car fishtailed, I was telling Aidan what to watch for (he currently has his learner's permit), "steer into the skid..." keeping the car in first and riding the brake. Now I realize that trying the brake wasn't the best idea, but at the time I had trouble keeping my foot off and of course the car wouldn't stop although I swear it slowed it down a little but what I didn't expect was this odd jerky motion as a result; I'm still not sure what that was about.

As we came around the hairpin turn and headed down that last straight stretch, I was picturing us gliding right on through the stopsign at Highland Avenue and I hoped there wouldn't be a vehicle coming because a collision would have really sucked. Hey, a dry spot under that tree! I was able to stop there and re-group a bit. When I "slid" the rest of the way down it wasn't so bad since the hill wasn't as steep there and there wasn't as far to go so I didn't pick up the speed like I had earlier so it was possible to stop at the stop sign. Whew!

I dropped Aidan at school and continued on to work. Just past Gold Hill I noticed there was noticably less snow and by Medford (30 miles from GP), there was NOTHING.

What an odd feeling. Here I've just risked my life and that of my child, and nobody at work had a clue about my drama. *sigh*

Yes, I used to say, "I grew up in the ice and snow, I know how to drive in this stuff!" But sadly, I haven't had enough practice over the past 25 years so now I'm like many of these other west coast people who have no clue...

Gratitude - Day One

I, like many people, have heard about the benefits of practicing gratitude. The common advice is to think of three things daily that you feel grateful for, write them in your Gratitude Journal, and watch your life change. Blah, blah, blah.

Yes, I'm grateful for my family, my home, my job, my friends, my stuff, et cetera. After a few months, (days?) a person starts repeating themselves because really, can we really think of that many things to feel grateful for?

It has recently come to my attention though: Thinking is not quite the same as feeling gratitude. Thinking of something is the first step. But then, to make it really meaningful, one must feel it.

The best way I can describe the process is this:

1.  Feel the energy present in the palms of your hands. Just keep observing until your palms feel a little bit warm and begin to tingle. I don't really know how hard this is for most people; it comes very easily for me because we were taught about this in church when I was little. I do think there is the chance that children are more perceptive to this sort of thing than adults. Also, I have heard that if it is difficult for someone to detect energy either around themselves or others (or objects), it can be useful to try practicing on a cat by holding one's hand a couple of inches above the cat's fur. They have a more noticible energy field around them.

2. Notice the energy in your feet. When you can feel them tingle too, connect the line of energy through your body from hands to feet and back with each deep breath in and out. Doing this raises your energy level and can be done anytime. It is also how to raise your energy level if you are interested in the Law of Attraction principles.

3. Once the energy is flowing through your body, you can feel it center at the heart area. Here is where we feel stuff. Once I thought about what I was going to feel gratitude for, this heightened the feeling to an unbelievable level. With each breath in and out, I could feel the essence of the gratitude in each cell of my body. (Well. I think I did anyway.)

My goal is to Practice Gratitude for 28 days. Today was my first day. When I first woke up this morning, I thought about my hands.

 I am SO happy I have two hands! This makes it very useful to do stuff. I am thankful to have thumbs which make the whole picking things up way easier. Just think of all the things that would be REALLY HARD to do with only one hand... carrying things, cooking, knitting.  Oh yeah! I was just thinking the other night how useful it would be to have three hands so I could eat and keep knitting... Oh! Sorry! Yes, how thankful I am for two hands. As it was, I set my knitting aside and thought about the fact that eating while doing nothing else made me very mindful about each bite, the flavors, etc. (I was eating by myself that evening so not even anyone to talk to... hmm... "talking" could be a future area for gratitude as I like doing that quite a bit...)

So Day One of Practicing Gratitude: Hands.

Where this comes in useful (I'm hoping, and why I'm even bothering with this whole thing): Whenever I find myself getting stressed out, I intend to create the energy to feel gratitude towards my focus for the day. Not surprisingly, I did have a couple of opportunities to try this out, and yes, it did take my focus off the annoyance that would otherwise put me into a funk for who knows how long.

I don't want to feel anxiety anymore...

Toto's Africa

When I was in highschool in the early 80's, Toto became a favorite group for me after hearing it from a schoolmate whose two favorite groups were Toto and the Rolling Stones. While I never gained the same appreciation for the Stones, I could (and did) listen to Toto for hours and had purchased the cassette of Toto IV. I believe I may have worn it out. Any kind of piano music is a favorite for me.

So when I encountered this You Tube video of the acapella group, Perpetuum Jazzile, performing Africa, I was very impressed. Even if Toto were not a favorite, this version of the song is very compelling. I invite you to view it; here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw.

The fact that all instrumentals and percussions are done by people is what makes this so cool.  They snap their fingers and slap their legs to sound like rain, and jump on the risers upon which they stand to mimic thunder... Also they really look like they are having fun, their smiles are awesome - seeing and listening to this makes me happy.  :)

Decluttering... It's a Mind Thing

I think our house is in pretty good shape. Yes, we constantly have "stuff" to pick up, but we get to it regularly and doesn't look too bad. My problem is the hidden clutter, the things that get stuffed into a drawer, or closet, or attic, just to get them out of sight.

When I first heard about Feng Shui some years ago, I was completely intrigued. And to find out more, I did what I usually do: go to the library and find some books to read up on the topic. Although the internet makes research a lot quicker, there's something about holding a book to read that a computer doesn't quite match.

A common theme in the Feng Shui literature is to get rid of clutter. They say it is impossible for the good energy to flow freely when you have a bunch of stuff in the way. (Now I don't really want to get into a philosophical discussion about the plausibility of the topic - energy exists. Deal with it. Also, I think most people can agree that having a bunch of junk laying about does not make for a very positive atmosphere.) Anyway... although I could agree with the concept, I had no idea how to actually get rid of anything that wasn't obviously destined for the garbage. Now I was brought up to save anything that had any "good" left to it. It was acceptable and even encouraged to give things to anyone in need, but my oh my. If we ever tossed something that could in any way be useful later on, it was a great lesson that it should have been saved. This, of course, established a pretty deep belief system.

 
Then I happened upon the book, "Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui" by Karen Kingston. Oh wow. It gives practical tips on how to let go of stuff, beginning with presenting the perspective of why people have such a tough time. It gives ideas such as, none of us REALLY own anything - we won't have it when we're gone, therefore we are simply the temporary custodian of our things and should freely give other people a turn with them. What?? Also, we need to have faith that the universe will provide when we're in need of that item in the future (feel free to insert "God" here). And, if you later find yourself thinking you could use the item you got rid of, be sure to trust that the "you" that made the decision to declutter it had a very good reason for doing so and move on.

How empowering! I had read lots of books on getting organized, yadda, yadda, and for the first time, actually felt compelled to get up off my backside and Do Something! Usually I'm quite happy to just sit around and read about stuff rather than actually doing them...

Between this and following Flylady (http://www.flylady.net/), I've decluttered a LOT of stuff over the last ten years. So why am I having a problem? I think it's because I've been through the easy stuff. Now I'm left with the hidden things, items that have more complicated history. Also because I keep buying things... like I suppose all Americans do.

A co-worker recently commented that she saw something about a fellow who is committed to owning only one hundred items and challenges others to do the same. I was appalled. "So do dishes count as one item for the set? Or do you have to count each piece?" I asked. She replied, "ONLY ONE HUNDRED THINGS!" (I have googled it and believe this is what she was referring to: http://guynameddave.com/about-the-100-thing-challenge/)

Oh.

So I look around. I haven't actually counted up my items of clothing and shoes, but I bet there are at least 50 things there. I easily have at least 50 books (which are constantly sorted through for donations to the library). Let's see... maybe all my fabric can count as one item... this is rather sad as I don't even enjoy quilting anymore, but I do have several projects still in process and I keep HOPING I'll want to get back to them... I bet I have close to 50 things related to knitting now. And I haven't even checked the kitchen cupboards. I'm a little afraid to...

Ye gods. This is not good. I guess I need to actually go read this man's blog for inspiration.

One thing I did decide to start doing a month or so back, was to use things up. I started looking in my pantry and freezer at food that's been there a while and challenged myself to either toss it, or look for ways to use it up. Came up with some pretty good soup a couple of times that way. Also looked in the bathroom cupboards and drawers and tossed a good number of things I didn't want to use, and started using up others. Have finished up a few little odd bottles of lotion and this bottle of Mary Kay face lotion that I had quit using about a year ago when I found out about using coconut oil on my face, and all over actually. Yes, the stuff you cook with. It's absolutely fabulous on your skin! The only thing is it doesn't provide sunscreen. But other than that (winter time especially) it makes my skin feel so soft and tighter somehow. It's weird. I did however use up the bottle of Mary Kay and just this week begin to use the coconut oil again. My face is happy! I'm also using up this mango body butter on the rest of me daily to get it used up where as when it's gone I'll go back to using coconut oil on legs and arms and such. Well, after I use up more lotions I have. Oh my. Why do we save stuff for "good"? And then suffer when it's gone bad?

Baby steps. That's all I can say... baby steps. It does make me more mindful about not bringing more crap home though, that's for sure.

When I think of my ideal existence - simplify - have few things, but love what you have - it's at odds with my current reality. That's going to be my mission now I think. "Do I need this? Do I love it? Do I use it?"

It's humorous actually, because since I secretly believed I should have had the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder as a girl, to think about the cabins and small houses they had... and Ma still knit and sewed for the whole family. Why do I need SO MUCH STUFF?? Since I would like to live in a cabin or cottage one day I should cultivate the sense of this right now. At the very least, it is conducive to feeling peace. I could use some of that at times.  :) 

Fuzzy Purple Yarn

So Yvonne left me two skeins of this purple fuzzy yarn today. It's to complete Kathy's bikini set - see entry of February 1, 2011.  I think hot pink and this lovely purple should coordinate quite nicely, don't you?



Purple fuzzy yarn from Yvonne

 Trouble is, I've got quite a bit of knitting to catch up on before I cast on a new project... I still haven't sewn on the stupid crab thing and seashell onto the January block, although I did get the three fishes sewn on. Sheesh!

My plan is to begin the February block tomorrow as I head down to Sacramento for a compliance seminar on Friday. Good thing I'm going with another person so as to share the driving... driving is such a waste of time when one can be doing other things...

Like knitting!

Sunny Days / I Feel Fantastic!

One never knows where inspiration will strike...

I have encountered two new songs recently (well, new to me anyway) that are now my current favorites. Funny thing is that each of them were played on the Sticks and String podcast which I just discovered over the Christmas holidays and have been listening to them from the beginning ever since. Sticks and String is done by "An Australian bloke who knits" and is quite entertaining... maybe even for non-knitters perhaps. I do enjoy listening to his accent along with the knitting topics. Here is a link to his website:  http://www.sticksandstring.com.au/

So the first song is called "Sunny Days" by Eoghan Colgan. It is such an uplifting, happy song and I love the lyrics!

The second one is "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton. It also has such an upbeat tune and words - after hearing them in podcasts episode 4 and 2, I found them on iTunes and now have them in my When I Need to Feel Happy playlist. 

I so recommend both of these songs - however, if you want to hear the songs before potentially purchasing them, I am including the links to these podcasts. Who knows, you may even enjoy the knitting bits.  ;) 

Here is a link to the Sticks and String podcast, episode 4 (Sunny Days):
http://media.libsyn.com/media/sticksandstrings/Sticks_and_String_-_Show_4.mp3 

And here is episode 2 (I Feel Fantastic): http://media.libsyn.com/media/sticksandstrings/Sticks_and_String_-_Show_2.mp3

Quote from Richard Bach

Just saw this one today that's pretty cool:

"Can miles truly separate you from friends... if you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?"   ~Richard Bach

Look What I Spotted!

It's my very first car! Er, pickup. When I moved out here in 1986, I bought this little Mazda. I loved it! It had a four speed stick-shift on the floor and had a really hard time coming up over the mountain from Merlin into Grants Pass on the freeway. It also required about 10 minutes to warm up in the cold weather in order to work without being a bit dodgy.

Wow, I thought for sure it would have been scrapped long before now. I used to see it around town quite a lot when I first sold it, then gradually less and less often. It's probably been at least 15 years since the last sighting.

I have mixed feelings about seeing it: It's looking so darned sad! On the other hand, it does have happy memories that bring a smile to my heart...

Pride & Prejudice

I have been trying to enjoy Jane Austen for a long time now. But it's been really hard going. I had heard of her works of course, and when my friend Rosemary mentioned a couple of years ago that she was reading "Emma", I asked her if I could borrow it when she was finished. I've had that book, yes, for a couple of years now and have started over with it several times but have not been able to get through the first couple of chapters. The trouble was that all of a sudden the realization hits me that I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the book.

I've checked out the library's copy of the audio version of both Emma and Sense & Sensibility over time, and again, half the disc would go by in the car and I would realize I had no idea what the story was about. I work in Medford which gives me a half hour of car time both morning and evening and am happy to have books to listen to. Especially since the commute gives me less actual reading time during the course of a day...

I was faintly astonished and largely impressed as my teenage niece Caitlin described Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility as being her favorite movies. What?

When I was at Marji's house last fall, we began watching Pride & Prejudice and (maybe because I really do like to talk... I know, hard to believe) I found myself with the feeling that I had no idea what was going on. We didn't make it through the whole movie. We did get far enough to encounter the five daughters and I mentioned to Phil, "Hey! You guys could have three more girls and have a household like theirs!" He got quite an appalled look on his face so I'm thinking that's not going to happen. Oh well. There were four girls in our household and we didn't have quite that much drama as we were growing up, although it seems there is much more so now when we all get together at my mom and dad's. It's entertaining that way so I have a feeling we now work it on purpose.    :)

So it's not that I haven't wanted to enjoy Jane Austen. I've listened to the audio books, "The Jane Austen Book Club" and "Writing Jane Austen" both of which I enjoyed quite a lot. There are so many people that adore her works that I knew there had to be something there to like. Besides that, I've heard so much about the dashing Mr. Darcy that it stands to reason there must be some reason to pay attention there... Not to mention all times I've encountered knitting references to the Jane Austen era.

This winter when I downloaded the Nook Reader app onto my iPhone, I found it came with a couple of free books. One of which is Pride & Prejudice. (I'm pretty sure I'll be actually be able to spell prejudice by the time I finish here!)

Okay. That's it. I really need to get through this! I started with page one, and this time I looked at the first sentence and would not continue until I could rephrase it in modern terms. Okay then. Now the second sentence. Hey! It's working! I get it!

I only had to do this translating bit for the first page or so and then I was good to go...  Of course, reading takes away from knitting time whereas listening to podcasts, audio books, and movies, can all be done while knitting. For some reason, I have been getting very little actual reading done these past few months. And also, I have not made it completely through the book. I did find the audio book at the library and am listening to it in the car this week.

Last night Rich and Aidan had to go out, and since a co-worker was kind enough to lend me her movie version of Pride & Prejudice, it seemed an apt time to start watching it.

So... a glass of wine, a movie, and working on finishing up my January afghan block... sssshhhh... don't tell Marji I haven't finished mine yet. I think she finished hers on Monday which I was supposed to do too but I got caught up with stringing beads onto some black cotton for another project I just couldn't wait to dip into...

Being a Knitter Means You're OLD??

Recently upon learning that I knit, a friend's response was, "When did you get to be so old!?"

I responded that I was born old. What I should have added however, is "But... I'm getting younger all the time!"

There are plenty of young knitters! I am a chick with sticks! And who but the young (or at least young at heart) would ever consider joining a Stitch & Bitch group?

If more knitters were to knit in public, it would be way obvious what the range of ages are.

So... let me ask:

Would an old person knit this??

I have to say, this is probably the most creative thing I've come up with. One day my friend Kathy brought me this skein of hot pink "fringy" yarn with colored bits throughout and says, "I thought I would do a project with my nieces with this but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so I'm giving it to you."

Oh dear. As a rule I don't wear pink. Certainly not that shade. So a scarf is out.

Hey, I could make something for Kathy! And then I remembered the bikini pattern in my Stitch & Bitch book. I couldn't use the pattern the way it was written as the yarn they used was much different (maybe classier even... I know, hard to imagine), but I could use it as a place to start. The hard part was keeping good notes every time I had to rip out and start again to get correct sizing and then get the second half the same as the first.

Kathy claims it wouldn't even fit her cat which of course means she thinks it wouldn't fit her either and I know that's completely untrue because it fit me (well, sort of) and she's at least as "small" as I am...

Ah well, I guess sometimes we just have to go along with the delusions of friends, don't we.

Procyclicality!?

I have been finding my vocabulary expanding as a result of my job. Today I encountered the word "procyclicality," as follows:

"Comments on the FDIC, OCC and Federal Reserve's joint market risk capital proposal are due April 11. The proposal seeks to better capture positions for which the market risk capital rules are appropriate, reduce procyclicality in market risk capital requirements, enhance the rules' sensitivity to risks that are not adequately captured under the current regulatory measurement methodologies, and increase transparency through enhanced disclosures."

Huh? 

And I'm supposed to sort out whether this affects our company...

A couple of the others I've encountered are:

• Contemporaneously. As in - “The term “joint applicant” refers to someone who applies contemporaneously with the applicant for shared or joint credit."

• Promulgated. As in - "The guidance is being offset by examiners and other regulators in the field who have not followed the policies promulgated by their agencies in Washington but continue to be overly restrictive when evaluating the credit decisions of those they regulate."

Hmmm....

Now I'm just trying to work out how I can slip any of these words into a conversation. Maybe, "My knitting projects are sure showing a procyclicality these days!"

*Sigh*

The Red Hat is Done, a Whole New Challenge

Oh boy, just when you think you've gotten good at something you've done a few times, something new comes along and bites you right in the rear. In this case, it was the design in this really cool hat.  It turns out that when you have a second color that goes all along the main color, the two strands carry along in the back without any problem. I also learned that "intarsia" and "Fair Isle" while similar, are actually two different terms. Fair Isle carries the design along the whole way and intarsia is a block of color design and is typically worked back and forth, not "in the round."

The first hats I made are Fair Isle

The red one has Fair Isle around the bottom and top; intarsia for the main logo and lettering:

Now that I google intarsia images, I see the backs of some designs have ends of yarn dangling on each row - that is an option I had not considered and still would not choose to do. Pulling in all those yarn ends does not seem like fun to me.  :)

The swatch I did ahead of time and showed a picture of on my previous blog entry was my attempt to be "prepared." I altered the edges just a bit as a result and thought I was ready for the real project. After I did the first row of the lettering on the hat, I had a sudden realization: The black yarn was left dangling on the left side of the design while I kept going around with the red background color and then the next time I would reach the design, the black would be on the wrong edge.

I googled: How To Knit Intarsia In The Round. First hit explained that it was not possible to knit intarsia in the round. Hmmm... let's see what else is out there...

Bingo!  The link I referred to: http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2008/02/tutorial-intars.html has a great description with plenty of photos to demonstrate what she is talking about. It was still pretty confusing until I just did what she said. Basically, you knit across with only one of the colors, slipping the stitches of the alternate color. At the end, you knit back with the alternate color, slipping the stitches of the ones already completed. Then, you slip all those completed stitches back onto your right hand needle and keep going at that place where you left off. Note: stitch markers come in incredibly handy because I kept forgetting exactly at which stitch I had started and stopped. Now the secondary color is waiting on the right hand side and is ready for you to do both colors on the next row, then the one after that, alternate the colors again.

Whew! I need a glass of wine...

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

Yep, it's a ball winder. So last night I had to sit and wind some of my partial skeins that were used enough to now be "floppy" and thus were worth re-winding.

Over the past few days, I began work on the red earflapper hat Aidan has requested. He wants a certain popular sports logo as the design, so after having him draw it on graph paper and translating it into x's, I knit a swatch. Yep, not my favorite thing to do as I seldom see a direct relation to the final product. I'm really trying to turn a new leaf however, so it seemed a prudent thing to do.

I think it turned out pretty well, and it was decidedly worth doing a swatch. The "I" turned out too heavy so it'll be easy to make that adjustment in the hat itself.

As of tonight, I've made this much progress:

But... I may rather go wind more yarn balls...   :)



The Hat is Done!

It's done!

I got Aidan, my 16-year old to take the photo for me... and I like the hat!

Note the supernatural phenomena on the bathroom wall. It's rather freaking Aidan and me out as it is not there except in photos on that wall. We've taken quite a few now, and sometimes it's not showing up on that wall. Other photos show the "spots" but in slightly different positions. We emailed a few to Aidan's big brother Jonas since he's got actual Paranormal Investigator Equipment. I thought it would be far more efficient for Jonas to just bring his stuff over to check it out. But, I suppose it was more efficient for him to not drive over here.  He's got some theory about it being a reflection off of something... Yeah. Tell that to Aidan...

So take a look at the pic of just the hat and you might be able to see why I had such angst about it:

Oh well. Some things are just better tried on.